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WASHINGTON — Seeking to end flight delays that jammed airports nationwide, the House approved
legislation yesterday that will stop the furlough of air-traffic controllers.

The bill goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Final passage of the quickly arranged stopgap measure came as some lawmakers already were
boarding flights out of Washington for a weeklong recess, setting aside other contentious issues
such as gun control and immigration.

The House overwhelmingly approved the bill, 361-41, but not without a round of political
finger-pointing over who is to blame for the across-the-board sequester cuts that furloughed
air-traffic controllers and caused hours-long flight delays this week, angering travelers across
the country.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the president will sign the bill, but Carney also blasted
Congress for not taking steps to shield students, government employees and others from the effect
of the budget cuts.

But Republicans also assailed the Obama administration. “The administration has played shameful
politics with sequestration at the expense of hardworking American families,” said Rep. Tom Latham,
R-Iowa, in introducing the bill. “We’re taking this step because of the gross mismanagement.”

A top Democrat, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, said the bill failed to deal with other fallouts
from the $85 billion in cuts, such as protecting children in Head Start preschools, seniors who
rely on Meals on Wheels food deliveries and others who have lost federal services.

“Nothing in here for them,” Hoyer thundered during the rare Friday morning session of the House.
“We ought to help everyone else as well.”

Among Ohio lawmakers, Republicans Jim Jordan of Urbana and Brad Wenstrup of Cincinnati and
Democrat Marcia Fudge of Cleveland voted against the bill. Democrat Joyce Beatty did not vote.

All other Ohio lawmakers voted for the bill.

Passage of the three-page fix called the “Reducing Flight Delays Act of 2013” shows how quickly
a sharply divided Congress can reverse course when confronted with public protest.

The bill allows the Federal Aviation Administration to use $253 million from other accounts to
keep the air-traffic controllers on the job.

The Senate unanimously approved it late Thursday, after most senators already had left town.

Senate officials said the funding also would prevent the closure of 149 contract control towers,
mostly in rural areas, that had been slated for later this year.

Lawmakers had reluctantly agreed earlier this year to let the sequester cuts take effect after
they had been unable to reach an alternative deficit-reduction plan. The across-the-board cuts had
been seen as so draconian that they would force Democrats and Republicans to compromise.

The Obama administration was criticized after warning that deep reductions would disrupt the
economy. The cuts started on March 1 but are only now beginning to be felt on a large scale.